Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 8
13th Report - Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children
Published 7 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department compares the attainment of disadvantaged pupils against their peers nationally through the disadvantage gap index, its main measure of progress.17 The Department explained that its most recent data shows this gap narrowed marginally in the last two years for children leaving primary school at key stage 2 (from 3.23 in 2021/22 to 3.13 in 2023/24) and in the last year for those leaving secondary at key stage 4 (3.94 in 2022/23 to 3.92 in 2023/24). This is starting to reverse the significant widening of the gap seen during the COVID–19 pandemic.18 The Department sees the recent narrowing as a success but acknowledges that the gap is not closing as quickly as it would like, with some way to go to return to the pre–pandemic position.19 However, the Department has not set out the specific progress it wants to make and by when. The Department acknowledged that the index can be difficult to understand, but considered this the best measure as, being relative, it was resilient to changes in testing methods, standards, and pupil numbers.20 It also acknowledged that the index did not help understand 12 Q 5 13 Q 11 14 OECD, PISA 2022 Results: The State of Learning and Equity in Education, 5 December 2023 15 Q 11 16 Q 20 17 C&AG’s Report, para 3, 10. 18 Q5 19 Qq 5, 6 20 C&AG’s Report, para 11; Qq 8 and 10 9 performance variation across disadvantaged children, for example by local area, ethnicity or gender.21 The National Foundation of Educational Research identified that it is increasingly difficult to tell whether trends were driven by improving attainment or wider factors, with changes to the eligibility of free school meals impacting the numbers assessed as disadvantaged.22
From: Public Accounts Committee, 13th Report - Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children (HC 365), 7 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirteenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirteenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government disagrees with the Committee's recommendation on setting out gap-narrowing targets and agrees with its recommendations on funding evidence, early years evidence, school spending data, support for evidence-based decisions and the Opportunity Mission.
- On setting three, five and ten year gap-narrowing goals, the government disagrees, stating that "Impact will be measured through attainment at the end of secondary school" and that progress is "already closely monitored" through published data.
- It agrees to re-assess the evidence for funding decisions, with a target date of September 2025. A review of the schools national funding formula "will inform decisions on the NFF and pupil premium for 2026-27" onwards.
- On school spending data, it agrees (target December 2027) and is "reviewing options" to improve pupil premium reporting, including "potential digital solutions by Academic Year 2027-28".
- On early years evidence, it agrees (target April 2026) and says it will work with the Education Endowment Foundation to monitor the impact of the Early Years Pupil Premium uplift through an independent evaluation.